TECHTALKS 2017

Mainframe have been instrumental in developing various tools for Autodesk Maya including its procedural animation toolkit MASH. Ian and Martin will be talking about some of the technical challenges they've faced along the way, how they've solved them and how those solutions are opening up other possibilities and use cases.

Oliver's session will cover 20 challenges of developing immersive content - from why and when to use immersive content and which camera to use, to how to overcome vestibular sickness while moving through large spaces. Oliver will discuss how to tackle and overcome these challenges.

This talk will focus on Double Negative's work creating Life's primary creature Calvin, that was led by Creature CG Supervisor Aharon Bourland and leveraged the software Houdini to realise the creative vision of Daniel Espinosa. We will give an overview of the custom Houdini tools and techniques used to enable us to deliver the creature's performance at different stages of its evolution.

With a background in VFX and Web, over the years FX Digital has naturally grown into a digital agency that pioneers 3D and VR on the Web. The team's latest project shows what can be done with WebVR today.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales” pirate ships emerge from the bottom of the ocean, an ocean parts and collapses, a ship floats in a bottle and dozens of characters interact with the surrounding sea. This talk discusses MPC's approaches to these challenging full CG shots.

Multi award winning studio MPC Advertising presents an in-depth look at its groundbreaking CG worlds crafted for Heineken.

Prior to joining Double Negative, Dara spent over fifteen years working for Walt Disney’s Animation Studios in production, technology and FX roles while also bringing the characters to life with voiceovers on feature films such as Hollywood Abbey (Chicken Little), Mrs Harrington and the Receptionist (Meet the Robinsons), and the multi-award winning global phenomenon, Frozen.

As a director of Cinesite and a founder of the animated features side of the business, Eamonn directs all aspects of the company’s animation output. Most recently, he has overseen animation on productions including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Independence Day: Resurgence, Captain America: Civil War and AntMan.
In addition to his contribution to Cinesite’s visual effects business, Eamonn has been instrumental in building the creative team for Cinesite’s new Montreal based feature animation division, which releases its first service production, Gnome Alone, in 2017, the first in a slate of upcoming releases including Charming and The Star.

Oli Hyatt MBE set up Blue-Zoo in 2000 straight from university and over the following 16 years he has slowly grown the studio into one of the largest character animation studio’s in Europe.

Tom is Managing Director of Double Negative Feature Animation. Tom has spent over 12 years as Associate Producer/Line Producer on full CG Animated Feature Films, in addition to six years as Managing Director of post production animation and special FX companies. He previously built 2 feature animation studios in London and Vancouver CA., before joining Double Negative from Dreamworks where he produced Oscar nominated Puss in Boots and the critically acclaimed Rise of the Guardians.

Kim Keukeleire is an animation director and Lead animator based in Belgium and specialised in Stop motion animation.
Amongst other, she animated on Chicken Run (Nick Park & Peter Lord), Fantastic Mister Fox (Wes Anderson). Kimcurrently animates on Wes Anderson’s new stop-motion feature film "Isle of Dogs" in London.

Jessie joined MPC London's award-winning VFX team in 2015 after establishing her career in Los Angeles, California. As a Lighting TD and CG Supervisor, her commercial work includes an impressive portfolio of projects, including Heineken 'The Trailblazers’, John Lewis 'Buster the Boxer', and Agos 'Trust'. Jessie has a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University, Philadelphia.

Muhittin Bilginer is Senior Visual Effects Technical Director, Double Negative Visual Effects, London. After completing his MA in Digital Effects at Bournemouth University, Muhittin worked on commercials at Realise Studio and later joined Double Negative to start his feature film career. His credits include projects such as: Fast & Furious, Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Spectre, Star Trek Beyond and Life. He is also a visiting lecturer at Bournemouth University, MA Digital Effects programme.

Tom co-founded Blue Zoo Animation and over the studio's 17-year growth the company has become one of the leading CG animation studios in the UK; picking up a few BAFTAs along the way.
Tom sits on the creative fence between the commercials and technology side of the studio and runs the company’s short film programme.

As Head of Special Projects, Oliver leads on innovative and technical solutions allowing REWIND to deliver ground-breaking and challenging productions. With a deep rooted background in complex IT, Oliver applies his in-depth knowledge of bleeding-edge technology and science to bespoke technical setups and solutions. REWIND fuses immersive technology with award-winning creative storytelling to deliver memorable experiences for the world's largest studios, agencies, and brands.

Framestore once again voyaged into space to team up with Ridley Scott on Alien: Covenant. VFX Supervisor Stuart Penn will talk through the major work, including the build of the Covenant ship and cult horror creatures; the ‘Facehugger’ and the ‘Chestburster.’

Mikey Please is a BAFTA award winning animation writer and director. One half of Parabella. Represented by Blink Ink. RCA alumni.

After graduating from Bournemouth Universirty Ben spent several years working as a freelance generalist largely involved with architectural visualisation. During this time he forged a strong relationship with Blue-Zoo Productions who he later joined full-time. Since then he's worked in numerous roles within the company, including animator, animation director and director

Martin's arrival at Mainframe last year doubled its development department. Since then he's become an integral part of the team applying his methodical, mathematical mind to the messy, unpredictable world of animation.

Ian has been working at Mainframe's Manchester studio for 8 years now. Originally joining as a 3d artist he is now the Lead Developer applying his wealth of experience in Motion Design and VFX to creating artist friendly tools. Ian was instrumental in the creation of the Autodesk Maya plug-in 'MASH' and remains central to its continued development alongside several other tools focussed on opening up the creative possibilities for both the team at Mainframe and 3d artists across the globe.

Kai Wolter is a lead software developer at MPC London with a focus on FX and Crowds. Kai received a Master degree in Computer Science from the University of Paderborn, Germany, in 2005, and has since then been working in the VFX industry on movies including "Legend of the Guardians", "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "The Jungle Book". Kai led the software development for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and most recently started his work as software supervisor on "The Lion King".

Come and meet Autodesk's experts :

John Paul Giancarlo | Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist

Kevin Booth | Product Specialist Shotgun

Jo Fawell | UK Marketing Manager Media & Entertainment

Francois Millet | Named Accounts Sales Media and Entertainment

Show off your skills on Photoshop or Mudbox on the Cintiqs!

We'll have a few professional animators giving feedback on reels on one workstation (Bring Your Own Animation style), or you can use the workstation to show your stuff to other people!

Bring Your Own Animation (usb key, iPad, online, etc) to have it reviewed by a professional Animators at the Escape Technology booth!

REWIND will be attending Day 2

Blue-Zoo will show an exclusive peak into how their new short Mamoon was made using a unique approach of animation.
A recruitment session will also take place with Blue-Zoo discussing their exciting opportunities.

Framestore will have a Samsung Gear VR which has multiple pieces of content on that the studio have produced - from an 'Avengers' experience to more commercial pieces.

Enjoy photorealistic 3D worlds

MPC will be holding a recruitment session at their booth in the exhibition space.

Dneg will be hosting a recruitment session. Get your showreels ready.

RiseFX will be hosting a recruitment session

Scanline will be hosting a recruitment booth on Day 2 and Day 3

Come along and have look what exciting opportunities Jellyfish Pictures has to offer.

Make sure you sign up to the raffle for this awesome Quadro P4000 from PNY courtesy of Escape Technology!